


Christmas with the Kikumarus

by smicc



Category: Prince of Tennis (TV), Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-08
Updated: 2014-07-08
Packaged: 2018-02-07 23:25:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1918032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smicc/pseuds/smicc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Future fic. Eiji is keeping a secret from his parents and when his sister brings home her new boyfriend things come to head. There is yaoi not anything graphic. Golden Pair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. December 22 and 23

“Hikari’s bringing her boyfriend… she’s been hinting at something big all week so chances are good that they’re engaged now. She never could keep a secret” Eiji whined to Oishi over the phone. “It’s not fair.”

            “What’s not fair?” asked Oishi distractedly.

            “… You’re doing homework again,” accused Eiji. There was a short chuckle and the sound of a book closing.

            “It’s not fair that I’m doing homework?” he asked amused. “Okay, you’ve got my undivided attention.”

            “It’s not fair… That they can be that way.”

            “Who can?”

            “Hikari and her boyfriend… it’s not fair that they can be so happy, and be open about it,” said Eiji quietly.

            “Eiji,” said Oishi softly. “I love you-“

            “I know, and I love you too… but I don’t want to have to keep it a secret,” said Eiji depressed.  “I want to be able to move in together, to tell people that we’re together.”

            “Eiji, you know it’s too soon,”

            “Too soon? Oishi, we’ve been together since the beginning of high school, that’s well over nine years now!”

            “You know what I mean love,” responded Oishi calmly.

            “… I do…”

            “And as long as we both know, no one else matters,”

            “Yeah… I wish I could see you this week though,” sighed Eiji.

            “I won’t be done with finals till tomorrow-“

            “Medical school is too much work,” grinned Eiji knowing that Oishi could tell from the tone of his voice that he was teasing him.

            “Then,” continued Oishi as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “I have to go up to my grandparents house in the mountains for Christmas. I’ll see you when I get back to Tokyo on the 28th.”

            “Okay… well, I’ll let you get back to your studying then, go ace those finals… bye Oishi love you, see you soon.”

            “I love you too. I’ll call you on Christmas eve after I get through the mountains,” said Oishi before Eiji reluctantly hung up.

            “Who was on the phone?” asked his mother as she emerged from the laundry room.

            “Oh, just someone from work, they wanted to discuss the curriculum for after break,” lied Eiji; his mother frowned at him for a moment.

            “Kitten? What’s wrong?” she asked concerned.

            “Oh, nothing… I’m just a little tired, I’m going to go to bed early tonight,” said Eiji as he began heading to his old bedroom.  For the remainder of his trip home he was staying in his and Jun, his second oldest brother’s, room. Hikari and her boyfriend, when they arrived would be staying in Hikari and Chiyo’s old room. Jun, his wife Mayu and their four-year-old daughter would be staying in Tomo’s, the oldest Kikumaru child. Tomo, his wife Junko and their four children would be staying with Chiyo’s family who lived only a few blocks away.

 It was going to be a long, hectic week with his entire family under one roof. Eiji, and his two older brothers, Jun and Tomo, were going to be spending quite a bit of time interrogating Hikari’s boyfriend, and well Eiji was also going to be spending a lot of time avoiding Mayu and Junko, his brother’s wives. A few years back, they had had a nice big neighborhood barbeque and had invited the entire Kikumaru clan. Junko and Mayu had been disappointed to find Eiji had once again shown up date-less, and being the friendly type of person that he is Eiji had spent much of the barbeque talking with people and seemingly flirting with the women of the neighborhood.

“You’re a nice guy, you deserve a nice girl who will love you,” Mayu had said when she and Junko cornered him after the barbeque.

“We just have a few friends that we want you to meet,” added Junko. And ever since then both had been playing matchmaker, trying, in vain, to find a wife for Eiji.

He closed the bedroom door behind him and flopped onto the lower bunk. Everyone else would be showing up tomorrow, but his mother had requested that he come early to help with the cooking and other preparations, well, it wasn’t like he could have seen Oishi today anyways. He thought with a reluctant sigh before he rolled over and fell asleep.

\---

“Good Morning!” called Chiyo as she walked into the kitchen where Eiji, half asleep, was nursing a strong cup of coffee. Despite popular misconception Eiji wasn’t a morning person, he would sleep in as late as people would let him, and was slow to wake. He gave an incoherent grunt of disapproval as Chiyo ruffled his hair and then joined him at the table.

“Aren’t you just mister sunshine today,” smiled Chiyo.

“Where’s the rest of your herd?” asked Eiji setting down his cup.

“Jiro took Kagome and Akira to the park, Kagome still has soccer lessons this morning so he had to take her over there anyways, and if he took Akira with them as well I could come over and help with the cooking so it wasn’t just all you and Mom,” smiled Chiyo.

“Thanks ‘neesan,” yawned Eiji as he stretched his arms up above his head. “It’ll be very much appreciated… oh, how long can you stay? Aren’t Tomo and his family arriving at your house today?” asked Eiji, Chiyo nodded.

“Yes, but that isn’t till this afternoon and Jiro and the kids will be back by then and they can handle all the arrangements… isn’t Jun’s family showing up today too?” asked Chiyo.

“Yes and I’ll be hiding as soon as Mayu and Junko run into each other,” groaned Eiji. Chiyo gave a slight chuckle.

“You know they’re just trying to help you, they want you to be happy.” Said Chiyo, she then placed her hand over her brother’s and looked him straight in the eyes with a serious expression. “We all want you to be happy.” He looked away blushing faintly.

“I know, I know.” Eiji mumbled. Chiyo then stood and walked over to the stove.

“I’ll make you breakfast… that should be incentive enough to wake up,” smiled Chiyo, she knew her youngest brother loved her omelets. Eiji smiled and stood.

“I’ll go get dressed then… and start helping Mom with the cleaning.”

\---

            As they all sat down to dinner Eiji’s mood seemed to lighten, surrounded by his family and their warmth he knew he couldn’t help but join in their happiness.

            “Uncle Eiji! Uncle Eiji!” called a voice from the kid’s table. “Watch this!” It could have come from any of his three nephews. Eiji turned and saw that it was the littlest one, Tomo and Junko’s youngest son, Kinta, he was only two but already he was surprisingly smart and quick to learn anything anyone showed him. All Eiji’s siblings mocking told him that Kinta was a younger, quieter version of him in all the ways that mattered, which mainly meant that Kinta was the crybaby and biggest attention hog of Junko and Tomo’s four children, and had been the baby of the family until three months ago when Junko had given birth to Eiji’s newest niece (and Kinta’s unwanted sister and competition) a sweet, quiet baby named Suzu. Eiji smiled as he watched his nephew do a handstand for a full five seconds.

            “Did you see? Didja!” he asked.

            “That’s nothing! Watch this Uncle Eiji!” Akira, Chiyo and Jiro’s youngest child, a five-year-old boy, yelled as he did a cartwheel.

            “I can do that better!” yelled Akira’s older sister, Kagome, who had just turned six.

            “Kagome!” came Chiyo’s harsh command. “Not in a dress.” The adults had all chuckled at that, knowing that in their youth, both of the girls of the Kikumaru family had been just as into gymnastics and acrobatics as the baby of the family had been, and Chiyo had done more than one cartwheel in a dress herself.

            Megumi, Junko and Tomo’s four-year-old daughter, and Sora, Jun and Mayu’s four-year-old daughter, left the kids table and came running over to Eiji’s seat at the adults table.

            “Uncle Eiji!” they said in unison. “After dinner can you show us that back flip again?” they pleaded. Eiji was about to reply when he was cut off by an indignant squawk from Harata, Junko and Tomo’s eldest child, a five-year-old boy.

            “Uncle Eiji promised to play that racing game with me after dinner! He doesn’t wanna play with stinky ole girls!” yelled Harata. The three started arguing but most of it was done by Megumi and Harata, the eldest of Junko and Tomo’s four children. Eiji grinned and held the three apart.

            “I’ll have time to do both,” he said with a laugh, it was really no secret that all the children’s favorite family member was ‘Uncle Eiji’.

            “Eiji, you’re getting so good with them” smiled Chiyo. Eiji shooed the children back to their dinner at their own table and then looked up at Chiyo.

            “Well, I do work mostly with kindergarteners now, I’m thinking about specializing there… What do you think? Me, as a Kindergarten teacher?” he asked. There were murmurs of approval all across the table; it seemed to be unanimous that Eiji would make a wonderful kindergarten teacher after he finished his last year of required substitute teaching.

Kikumaru Satsuki, proud mother of five grown children, looked up at the clock as she stood from her seat at one of the heads of the table.

            “Well, I was hoping Hikari would be here by now… but I guess we should start on dessert without them,” said Mrs. Kikumaru as she walked into the kitchen followed by her six grandchildren who were old enough to walk, and talk, amidst shouted questions of what kind of dessert there was and if they could get a second helping of it. 

            She had just set down two pies and an enormous chocolate cake on the dining room table when the front door opened.

            “Hello Hello everyone! Sorry we’re late!” came the excited yell of Kikumaru Hikari, youngest of the female children. She stuck her head into the dinning room. “Good! We made it in time for dessert!” she smiled as she was immediately swarmed by her young nieces and nephews, it was also no secret that after Uncle Eiji, Aunt Hikari was the next best.

            “Hey chibis!” she smiled hugging them all, before she got over to the rest of her family.

            “So, where is he?” asked Chiyo with a smirk. Hikari looked back the way she had come; there was no one there.

            “Huh? …Your guys’ aura must have scared him off already,” Hikari informed her three brothers who were doing their best to look innocent, as if they hadn’t been planning on interrogating him. Hikari went back they way she came and returned a moment later with her arm around a tall young man’s waist. He had dark eyes and dark hair and, like Hikari herself, multiple piercings, obviously an artist, which was also like Hikari. Mr. And Mrs. Kikumaru blanched at the sight of him, and the three Kikumaru sons grinned, they were going to have a lot of fun with this one.

            “But look,” said Hikari turning to Chiyo, Mayu and Junko; she held out her hand proudly, and there on her dainty little finger was a glimmering engagement ring. All three women squealed and began gushing to Hikari about how beautiful it was, and how nice he must be, and how exciting her engagement was. Which put a bit of a damper on the brothers’ evil machinations, after they were engaged, prospective others were technically off limits to teasing, provoking and interrogating.

            “Well that bites,” muttered Tomo.

            “She probably got engaged just to save him from the terror,” grinned Jun. Eiji for his part looked over at his sisters and sisters in law.

An engagement. All his complaints at the unfairness of his own relationship resurfaced in his mind. It just wasn’t fair, he wanted to be able to bring Oishi to family stuff, to proclaim that Oishi was more than just his old doubles partner; he wanted to get the opportunity to announce how serious their relationship was, how much they loved each other, and that if men were legally allowed to be wed, they would have done so years ago.

“Eiji?” asked Hikari, all of a sudden she was standing right in front of him looking concerned. Eiji pulled her into a hug.

“Congratulations Hikari ‘neesan! I’m happy for you!” he said, and he truly did mean it, just because he was jealous didn’t mean that he wanted to begrudge them their happiness. Hikari seemed to understand though; she gave a slight nod and hugged him tighter.

“It’ll be your turn soon enough,” she whispered quietly in his ear. Eiji released her but didn’t respond to her statement.

“Well,” he said turning to face Hikari’s fiancé. “Don’t just stand there, come on in, sit down, introduce yourself,” said Eiji pointing to a seat between Tomo and Jun who were grinning unrepentantly. Hikari gave her brothers a look.

“Be nice!” she admonished them as she pulled her fiancé over to an empty seat on the complete opposite end of the table from her brothers. She cut both her and her fiancé a piece of the chocolate cake and took a big bite. “You made this didn’t you Eiji! This is delicious!” She stated with a little ‘mmm’ of approval.

“Yes I did. Now put down the cake and get on with the intro!” said Eiji. Hikari glared but did as she was told.

“We’ve known each other for four years now,” Hikari informed her family with a smile.

“Hello my name is Kazuma Shiro. I’m very pleased to finally meet you all, I’ve heard so much about you all,” said the man politely.

“Don’t believe a word of it,” said Tomo.

“We’re actually quite civil,” added Jun.

“We haven’t slaughtered anyone in at least a week,” offered Eiji with a sadistic grin to match his older brothers’. The man’s smile faltered.

“Don’t listen to them Shiro,” said Hikari as she stuck her tongue out at her brothers. “They like to pretend they’re competent at anything.” There were indignant protests from all three and Chiyo just laughed, poor Shiro looked ready to run away and never return.

“Boys,” said Kikumaru Mitsu in a warning tone that shut all three up.

“Truce?” asked Hikari. The three brothers exchanged looks.

“… Truce,” said Tomo finally. “But we reserve the right to question him further at a later date.” Well, it was as close to a truce as she was going to get out of them so she agreed, and then dessert continued with burst of laughter and chatter and a general enjoyment by all participants.


	2. December 24 part 1

“So what do you think of him?” Eiji asked Jun quietly the next morning, Christmas Eve morning to be exact, as they watched Shiro, Hikari and their parents sit down to a quiet breakfast.

“… He obviously loves her very much, and she him,” said Jun after a moment. “But I think Mom and Dad are worried about his character… I mean she used to bring home some crazy boyfriends, remember that Yakuza guy,” said Jun with a grin. Eiji nodded in response.

“Or that one guy with all the tattoos,” Eiji laughed quietly. Sora walked over to her father and uncle.

“What’s so funny Daddy?” she asked Jun.

“Nothing sweetheart, Daddy and Uncle Eiji were just remembering some of your Aunt Hikari’s old boyfriends,” said Jun patting her head affectionately.

“Hey Sora, you want to do your Daddy and me a favor?” asked Eiji with an impish grin. Sora smiled brightly.

“Of course! What do I do?” Eiji leaned down and whispered something in her ear; she nodded her comprehension and then walked up to the table.

“What’d you tell her to do?” asked Jun. Eiji held a finger to his lips and mouthed ‘just wait and see’.

Sora reached the table and gave a light tug on Shiro’s shirtsleeve. He looked down at her.

“You’re not in the mafia are you?” she asked looking all too innocent. Shiro blinked down at her and Mitsu chuckled. Hikari however whirled around to face the family room.

“JUN! EIJI!” she screeched jumping out of her seat and both aforementioned men jumped up from theirs’. “I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!!” she yelled and lunged at them. Jun and Eiji reacted quickly, and ran as fast as they could away from the family room.

The front door opened to reveal Chiyo, Tomo and both their families. Jun and Eiji quickly darted through them, pushing to the sides those that got in their way and quickly made their escape into the streets.

“JUN!! EIJI!!! YOU’RE DEAD WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!” yelled Hikari giving chase. Tomo just shook his head as he led the startled group into the house.

“What was all that about?” asked Chiyo. Mayu, Jun’s wife, was talking sternly to her daughter.

“Sora, you know better than to listen to your Uncle Eiji about things like this.” Sora for her part didn’t look at all apologetic.

“But Mommy… It was helping Daddy too… They just wanted to know if he was in the mafia,” whined Sora. Tomo and Chiyo burst out laughing remembering all too well what Eiji and Jun had been referring to.

“The Yakuza thug,” uttered Tomo through his bouts of laughter.

            A few hours later Hikari came marching back into the house dragging behind her, two slightly roughed up redheaded men.

            “Sorry,” Jun and Eiji said in unison as they gave Shiro a slight bow. Sora quickly attached herself to her father’s side as Hikari then shoved her two brothers back into the family room.

            “Hey Daddy, why did you think he was in the mafia?” asked Sora as she scrambled into her father’s lap as he sat down on the couch, and Eiji flopped down next to them.

            “Well, with your Auntie Hikari you never know who she’ll bring home next… she’s brought home some pretty scary guys over the years… although,” he said turning to Eiji. “He is the most normal one she’s brought home, most polite one too.” Eiji nodded in agreement. It looked as if he truly was the one Hikari was finally going to settle down with, and that thought did get him depressed. No. This was Christmas, he wasn’t going to be depressed, he wasn’t going to even think about Oishi today… well except for his call later tonight.

            “We just have to be vigilant, he might secretly have a dark side” said Eiji with a grin attempting to break out of his gloomy mood. Sora nodded looking stubborn.

            “Okay! We’ll watch him closely!” she agreed, and both Eiji and Jun had to grin at what a cute picture she made. “But… how do we tell if he’s in the mafia?” asked Sora.

            “That’s easy enough,” said Jun with a grin. “People in the mafia always have dark hair,” he said tugging on a lock of his red hair.

            “But, Uncle Jiro has dark hair and he’s not in the mafia is he?” asked Sora.

            “No. Uncle Jiro’s not in the mafia, but it’s not just the dark hair that gives it away… they also have to be wearing all black, Uncle Jiro never wears black,” added Eiji with a smile.  Sora nodded her understanding. She hopped off her father’s lap.

            “I’m gonna go find Megumi and have her help me watch Auntie Hikari’s friend! Then we can look for Mafia people too.” She smiled and walked off to another room.

            “You’re going to make my daughter grow up to be a spy,” sighed Jun as leaned back into the couch.

            “That’d be interesting, Kikumaru Sora 007,” replied Eiji with a grin. The rest of the adults chose that moment to join Jun and Eiji in the family room to decorate the tree.

\---

            They’d been decorating the tree for a while now. Almost two hours. Everyone was having fun hanging ornaments and the couples were all catching each other under the lone mistletoe sprig hanging in the center of the room. As much as he had vowed not to be depressed and to not think about Oishi today he found himself succumbing to it. They all looked so happy, and they must have been, they were all free to express their love. Sometimes being in a large affectionate family really sucked, it just reminded you more of who you were missing.

            That was not to say that Eiji was missing out on the mistletoe, he’d been kissed by Megumi, Sora and Kagome numerous times that day, and even once by Hikari. But, he missed Oishi; he wanted to be kissed by Oishi, not by his well-meaning sister and nieces. 

            He was in the middle of a large depressed rant in his mind when he felt two someones sit down, one on either side of him. It was Junko and Mayu, and he’d been doing so well at avoiding them. He gave a quiet, resigned sigh.

            “… Let me see them,” They both squealed their excitement.

            “You’ll absolutely love my friend Sarah, she’s American!” smiled Mayu as she pulled out a picture of an exceedingly attractive blonde woman.

            “Or, if you want someone a little more traditional,” countered Junko. “This is my friend Yuki,” she continued as she pulled out a picture of a shy looking brunette.  Eiji reluctantly took both pictures that had been shoved into his face.

            “They both look very nice,” he said with a grimace. “but… neither are my type.”

            “One of these days,” sighed Junko. “One of these days, we’ll find you the perfect wife.”

            “Then you can go and produce adorable, hyperactive little children,” smiled Mayu.

            “Leave him alone you two,” admonished Tomo coming to his baby brother’s defense.  Both women stood.

            “Well, if your change your mind, both pictures have their numbers on the back” said Junko as she and Mayu walked away chattering excitedly about something.

            “Come on Eiji, cheer up. It’s Christmas,” said Tomo with a smile as he ruffled Eiji’s hair. Eiji glared up at him and quickly pushed his hair back into order.

            “I can deal with them myself you know,” said Eiji indignantly. Tomo just nodded knowing the famous Kikumaru stubborn streak all too well. He was saved from an argument by their niece Kagome running up and tugging on Eiji’s arm.

            “Uncle Eiji! Uncle Eiji! Come and play the racing game with us!” said Kagome as she dragged Eiji off into another room. Kagome’s mother, Chiyo came wandering up to Tomo a moment later.

            “Do you know what’s wrong?” asked Chiyo. Tomo shrugged his shoulders.

            “Not exactly, but he was fine until Hikari and her fiancé showed up… maybe it has something to do with them,” Tomo hazarded a guess. Chiyo looked over at her sister and her sister’s fiancé.

            “No. I don’t think that’s it … but, we’ve got to do something about it. It’s Christmas, everyone should be happy on Christmas,” said Chiyo. Tomo raised an eyebrow at her statement.

            “How mushy can you get?” he asked with a smirk. She punched him playfully in the arm.

\---

            It was now just after five ‘o clock, two minutes past, noted Eiji as he looked at the clock for what must have been the thousandth time that afternoon. He was starting to get worried, Oishi had said he would call when he got to his grandparents’ house, and he should have gotten there over two hours ago. It was only a three-hour drive, from his college to his grandparents’ house, and Oishi had said that he was going to leave before noon. Something had to be up though. If Oishi said he was going to call, he was going to call, it wasn’t like him to forget, so logically… Oishi had just gotten a late start this morning… or got stuck in traffic… or was lying somewhere off the side of the road in a ditch covered in the slowly falling snow.

            Eiji shook his head violently. No. He couldn’t be thinking like that. He glanced up at the clock again, it read 5:04. Damn… Okay, he’d give him another hour, if he hadn’t called by then he’d call him.

            “What’s wrong Eiji?” asked Mr. Kikumaru as he sat down on the couch next to his son. Eiji looked over at his father.

            “Nothing’s wrong. Nothing at all,” he said with a slight nervous chuckle. People were supposed to ignore him when he got moody, all throughout his childhood when he had acted like a little brat, or moody, they would all ignore him, to teach him to grow-up, to stop babying him, whatever the excuse, he had learned long ago that when he wanted to be left alone to act moody. So why wasn’t it working now.

            “You’ve been looking at the clock every two minutes for the past hour and half. Something’s up.” Said Mr. Kikumaru as he turned a leveling gaze on his youngest son.

            “Nya… It’s just… I’m expecting a call from a colleague; she was looking into getting me listed as a kindergarten specialist… She was supposed to call at three,” grimaced Eiji, he hated lying to his parents, and that had been twice in two days. 

            “Oh? Female co-worker?” smiled Mayu as she leaned over the back of the couch to smile at Eiji.

            “So that’s why Sarah isn’t your type.”

            “It’s not like that,” sighed Eiji. First off, there was no female co-worker to begin with, he worked in a small office, there were only seven other substitutes and by some odd circumstance, Eiji had recently replaced they only female substitute they’d had in quite some time. And second off he was already desperately in love with someone and had been for years, so that was why Sarah wasn’t his type.

            Eiji stood abruptly and left Mayu and his father looking up at him confused.

            “I’m going to go help Mom with dinner,” he said and then left for the kitchen.

\---

            After his third mistake with the ham, his mother, Chiyo and Junko forcefully propelled him out of the kitchen proclaiming that he wouldn’t be allowed back in until he got his focus back.  Eiji had frowned, protested and then walked off to find something to amuse him till dinnertime.

            He walked over to join his sister and Shiro both of who were talking by the tree.

            “Hey,” he said quietly. Hikari gave him a look that clearly said be nice, but he just ignored it. Shiro however sidled closer to Hikari. “What are you guys doing?” he asked. Hikari gave him an odd look.

            “Eiji? Are you okay?” He really must be getting bad at fake smiles, not that they were something he prided himself on, but it had long since gotten to the point that only Fuji and Oishi were truly able to tell whether he was wearing a fake, or real smile.

            “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just-“ whatever he had been about to say was cut off by Sora and Megumi sneaking into the room and sticking to the walls, looking very suspicious.

            “What are you guys up to?” asked Eiji with a grin. The two girls looked at him, Sora put a finger to her lips to silence her Uncle, and Megumi crooked her finger, beckoning Eiji over. He excused himself from Hikari and Shiro and joined his two nieces in the corner.

            “We’re keeping an eye on Auntie Hikari’s friend,” whispered Sora. Eiji had to grin, he hadn’t expected her to be serious about that, well actually, he hadn’t expected her to remember it this late in the night.

            “We’re also making sure no Mafia’s are here,” said Megumi seriously. Eiji grinned wider and patted both girls on the head.

            “Well I feel much safer with you two on patrol,” they both beamed up at him.

            “You have nothing to worry about while we’re here Uncle Eiji,” said Megumi as she and Sora both hugged him. He hugged them back.

            “Why don’t you guys go investigate the boys… I haven’t seen them in a while, they might have turned into members of the mafia,” he said alluding to his three nephews who had disappeared earlier, well, it was more accurate to say that Harata and Akira had gone to play the racing game and Kinta just wanted to play with the big boys, much to his older brother’s annoyance. Both girls’ eyes widened at Eiji’s statement.

            “They might have!” whispered Sora. Megumi nodded fervently.  “Thanks for the tip Uncle Eiji! We’ll go investigate them now!” they called before running back the way they had come.

            “What was that all about?” asked Hikari coming over to join Eiji in the corner.

            “Oh, nothing really… The girls are just pretending to be spies,” smiled Eiji.

            “And who’s idea was that,” accused Hikari.

            “It was Jun’s. It was all Jun,” said Eiji with a grin. Hikari pulled him into a headlock and gave him a noogie.

            “Oh yeah. I believe _that_! Jun wanted to be a superhero or a firetruck! You were the only one who ever wanted to be a spy,” said Hikari, with no real anger. Eiji eventually got her to release his head, and he spent the next few minutes pushing his hair back into order. Really! _Why did they always attack the hair? He didn’t understand their fascination with it_. Thought Eiji with a frown, completely missing the point that they attacked it because it annoyed him, and as siblings, it was their duty to annoy one another.

\---

            Sora and Megumi had grown bored of spying on their brothers and cousins not too long after initially finding them. After they had sufficiently annoyed them, and  “Made me lose!” as Harata had informed them with a shrill yell, they’d decided that the boys weren’t members of the mafia. They’d then left the room because it was just boring watching they boys playing the game, since they would never get a turn “’cause girls aren’t allowed to race!” Akira had informed them with all the knowledge of his five years, they had walked back downstairs, and were now on a mission to find out what was for dessert and when exactly they could open presents. After all they were only little kids, little kids who had been staring at the large glittering tree, with all sorts of colorful packages underneath it all day. If they didn’t get to open something soon, they were going to have to give up on stalking Aunt Hikari’s friend and start trying to figure out exactly what was in the big boxes with their names on it.

            They had just gotten to the last step when they heard a soft knock on the door. They both eagerly ran to answer it. Maybe it was Santa! They threw open the door only to find not Santa but a tall man with dark hair, wearing all black, and holding a large, suspicious looking bag. Both girls’ eyes widened and they turned to face each other.

            “Mafia!” They informed each other and then slammed the door closed and took off running to find the nearest adult. Leaving one very confused man standing outside in the cold and the snow. 


	3. December 24 part 2

Eiji glanced up at the clock; it was now 5: 32, just another half hour to wait. He was really starting to get nervous, but he informed himself that it wasn’t that much longer to wait, really. It was just 28 more minutes, just 28 measly minutes; he’d played tennis matches that lasted longer than that. Oishi was supposed to be the one that got worried over stuff like this, not him. He could wait through 28 minutes- oh! Wait! It was only 27 now!

            “Ei-“ Hikari had been about to say something but was cut off by Megumi and Sora latching onto Eiji, surprising both of them.

            “Uncle Eiji! Aunt Hikari!” gasped out Sora.

            “At the door-“ began Megumi.

            “Girls! You aren’t supposed to be answering the door, especially at this time of the night!” admonished Hikari.

            “We thought it would be Santa!” defended Sora.

            “Santa comes through the chimney you know that,” said Eiji as he picked up Megumi after convincing her to release her death grip on his leg.

            “That’s not the problem!” protested Sora. “There’s a mafia guy at the door! And he looks just like you said Uncle Eiji! Dark hair and wearing all black!” Hikari gave Eiji a look that clearly said, this is all your fault, if they have nightmares you get to be the one to stay up with them.

            “There’s no mafia man at the door, I’ll show you,” said Eiji as he walked to the door, followed closely by Sora and Hikari. As they reached the door Sora shrank back behind Hikari and Megumi tightened her grip on Eiji’s shoulder. He pulled open the door.

            “See, no one-“ but his voice died on his lips. There was indeed a man with dark hair standing on his porch, dressed in all black even, but that wasn’t what had left him speechless.

            “Oi-Oishi,” breathed Eiji looking quite surprised to see him, he released his hold on his niece and she seized the opportunity to run away from the door.

            “Hello,” Oishi answered with a small wave.

            “What are you doing here?! I thought you were going up to your grandparents house,” said Eiji.

            “The pass was closed due to snow, I couldn’t get through and had to come back,” said Oishi sounding slightly apologetic, he knew the underlying question Eiji had asked, but not asked. ‘Why didn’t you call’, and he had responded with a ‘sorry to worry you’. Their relationship was sometimes all about the subtleties.

            “I figured since I had to drive by here on my way home that I might as well drop off some of the presents I had. So here they are, and I’ll just be on my way,” said Oishi, always polite, as he held out the large bag of presents for Eiji to take.

Anything Eiji had been planning to say was cut off by Hikari, and surprisingly enough Mrs. Kikumaru pushing their way into his vision.  Apparently Sora and Megumi had run to find Mrs. Kikumaru when she realized that ‘Uncle Eiji was being controlled by the Mafia man’.

            “Oishi!” Mrs. Kikumaru had smiled pleasantly. “What are you talking about? You can’t just drop those off and leave, you have to at least come in and have a cup of coffee,” said Mrs. Kikumaru grabbing Oishi’s free hand and pulling him into the house.

            “Forget the coffee!” said Hikari, then she turned to her mother and said. “He couldn’t make it up to his grandparents because the pass closed,” She then turned back to Oishi. “You _have_ to stay! No one should be alone on Christmas!”

            “But, it’s supposed to be a family holiday. I don’t want to intrude-“

            “What intrude?! Oishi! You’re as good as family,” said Mrs. Kikumaru pulling Oishi into a hug. Hikari nodded in agreement. Oishi caught a look of Eiji’s face over Mrs. Kikumaru’s shoulder. He gave a small sheepish grin and hugged Mrs. Kikumaru back. Eiji smiled and shook his head.

            “Oishi’s being an idiot again. No one should be alone on Christmas,” Eiji informed him with a smile, and again Oishi understood the true meaning. ‘I’m glad I’m not alone, thank you for coming’.  Mrs. Kikumaru released Oishi.

            “We’ll I’ll go set another place at the table,” she said with a smile. Mrs. Kikumaru loved to feed people; it was something Oishi had noticed long ago. It seemed to be that if you were in her house, you needed to be eating, and she loved to make Oishi eat. She had always considered him skinny, and had decided the first day he had stepped in her home, back when he was 12, that she would make it her mission to ‘get some meat on those bones’ as she had so candidly put it.

            Once released Oishi made his way over to Eiji to pull him into a hug.

            “Merry Christmas,” he told Eiji with a smile.

            “Merry Christmas,” Eiji responded and hugged him tighter and then released him. Hikari then smiled and hugged Oishi too.

            “Now all my little brothers are here,” she said gleefully. Oishi blushed slightly at being so officially welcomed into the Kikumaru household, and then he saw the ring.

            “Are you engaged?” he asked suddenly surprising both Eiji and Hikari. Hikari looked down at her ring with a goofy grin, and then up at Oishi.

            “Yes, I am.”

            “Congratulations, I’m happy for you.” Said Oishi enthusiastically. Eiji’s hand found it’s way into Oishi’s and Oishi gave it an affectionate squeeze. Hadn’t they just been talking about this on the phone? He could tell just by Eiji grabbing hold of his hand that his partner felt insecure, but really when they understood each other so perfectly, was there any valid reason for the insecurity, or … or, was it jealousy? Hikari had started rambling about her fiancé not noticing that Oishi was no longer listening. He glanced over at Eiji. Yes, with that slight sour look on his face, there was no doubt in Oishi mind that Eiji was jealous of his sister. He was about to say something, he wasn’t quite sure what, but he had to say something to get that look off of Eiji face, when Eiji himself interrupted him.

            “Hikari, just let Oishi meet him and decide for himself whether or not he likes him,” said Eiji. Hikari blinked, of course. She grabbed a hold of Oishi’s hand and pulled him into the family room.

            “Hey everybody! Look who’s here!” called Hikari as she came around the corner and into the room.

            “Oishi!” came the surprised shouts of the rest of the Kikumaru children and Mr. Kikumaru. The rest of the family just looked on confused.

            “We caught him just lurking around outside,” smiled Hikari. The Kikumaru’s all got a good chuckle at that. Chiyo suddenly grinned impishly and came forward. She gave Oishi a quick peck on the cheek and he immediately flushed red. Hikari too caught on, Oishi was directly under the mistletoe, and she leaned over and kissed him too. Jiro and Shiro looked on, not sure what was going on, but that man was definitely too familiar with their woman. They were about to say something, when Eiji suddenly pushed Oishi farther into the room.

            “Nya! Hikari! Chiyo! Leave Oishi alone!” he said as he stuck out his tongue at his older sisters.

            “Hi!” smiled Mayu coming over to Oishi. “My name’s Mayu,” she said as she stood in front of him smiling.

            “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Oishi politely as he gave a slight bow. Mayu blushed and giggled slightly. Jun cleared his throat, and she smiled over her shoulder at him. Junko joined Mayu in front of Oishi.

            “Hello I’m Junko, are you single?” she asked suddenly. Oishi took a step away, reddening.

            “Junko!” came Tomo’s exasperated sigh. “It doesn’t matter whether he is or not, _you aren’t_.”

            “Well, yes, but someone that handsome can’t possibly still be single!” reasoned Junko. Oishi got even redder and Eiji attempted to cover his laughter, which only slightly worked.  “And if for some bizarre reason he was still single, I could definitely set him up with some of my friends,” Oishi took another step away his face going from red to white.

            “No, really, that’s okay,” he said.

            “How do you know the Kikumarus” asked Jiro suddenly joining the circle forming around Oishi.

            “Oh, well-“

            “He’s a friend of the family,” said Chiyo, answering her husband’s question.

            “He and Eiji have been close friends since they were in middle school… he, well, he just kinda got adopted into the clan,” said Jun with a grin. “It’s good to see you!” he said patting Oishi on the back.

            “It’s nice to see everyone again,” said Oishi with a smile that sent Mayu and Junko into a fit of giggles that made them sound exactly like schoolgirls.

            “Eiji! Chiyo! I could use a hand in here!” came Mrs. Kikumaru’s voice from the kitchen. Without a second thought they both walked into the kitchen.

            “Come sit by me Oishi,” said Mayu patting a seat on the couch that she had just walked over too. Oishi reluctantly sat down and Junko quickly jumped into the seat on his other side.

            “So you’ve been Eiji’s friend for a while right?” asked Mayu. Why did this all suddenly feel like and interrogation.

            “Yes, since we were 12,” answered Oishi.

            “That’s perfect! … So what does he look for in a woman?” asked Junko. Oishi was taken aback by her question.

            “W... What?” he managed to stammer out.

            “We’ve been trying to set him up for years, but every picture we show him, he says they’re not his type, so you, as his oldest and closest friend, will surely know what his type is!” said Mayu.

            “We just want him to be happy, and he’d make such a good father! He needs to have children!” added Junko.

            “MAYU! JUNKO!” yelled Tomo suddenly seeing the predicament Oishi was in. “Leave him alone! And leave Eiji alone!”

            “We just wanted to find out what Eiji looks for in a woman, and if we can’t ask his best friend who can we ask?” asked his wife completely unapologetic.  Tomo sighed.

            “Just stop… Come here Oishi. Hikari wants you to meet Shiro.” Said Tomo grabbing Oishi’s wrist and pulling the younger man across the room to where Shiro and Hikari were talking.

            “Hikari. Just make sure Mayu and Junko leave him alone,” Tomo ordered and then left the three.

            “What’d they ask?” asked Hikari with a grin.

            “They wanted to know what Eiji looked for in a woman,” answered Oishi nervously.

“Well that’s a dumb question to ask you,” scoffed Hikari, and Oishi, not for the first time, not by a long shot, was brought up short with the sudden thought that she knows. That she knew all about him and Eiji. It had been in their first year of college when he first got the impression that Hikari knew, but she never actually came out and accused them of it, so Oishi never clarified it for her.  
            “Well anyways. Oishi! This is Kazuma Shiro, my fiancé!” said Hikari positively glowing with happiness.

            “Shiro, this is my unofficial little brother Oishi,” said Hikari. Shiro paused, not quite sure what to make of him. It was obvious that all the Kikumaru’s adored him, if not looked on him as an actual member of the family. It was something he wanted, he wanted to be accepted by Hikari’s family, and he could learn how to do that from this man standing in front of him. So he was determined to make a good impression.

            “It’s nice to meet you,” said Shiro sticking out his hand.   
            “The pleasure’s all mine,” said Oishi with a sincere smile as he shook Shiro’s hand.  Hikari clapped her hands together over joyed.

            “So you approve Oishi?” she asked. He nodded and Hikari smiled wider, it made him smile to think that his opinion of Shiro mattered so much to her.

            “Would it have mattered if I said no?” asked Oishi suddenly curious. Shiro looked horrified and Hikari looked up at him with a frown.

            “Of course it would have mattered! Oishi can always tell who’s a good person and who’s not,” said Hikari determinedly, and that made Oishi smile even wider.

            “DINNER TIME!” came Mrs. Kikumaru’s shout and all chatter in the room stopped as everyone made their way over to their table. Hikari grabbed a hold of Oishi’s arm before he could walk off.

            “You’re staying,” she told him firmly. “For dinner, and for the night. We’re not going to let you be alone on Christmas… Come on. You can sit between me and Eiji.” Said Hikari firmly as she dragged him over to the table and had him sit. Eiji quickly sat down on his other side.

            “Avoid the ham,” Eiji mock whispered to Oishi with a wink. “Chiyo made it.”

            “EIJI!” came her indignant shout. “ _You_ were the one that messed up the ham!”

            “I’m sure all the food is delicious,” said Oishi trying to appease both siblings before they got into an argument.

            “You’re just too cute!” giggled Hikari as she hugged Oishi from the side and then released him to talk with her poor, neglected fiancé.

            “So Oishi,” asked Jun from across the table. “How’s the medical school going?”

            “It’s going well.  Just one more year of school, and then a internship at a hospital left, before I can officially have my own patients,” said Oishi as he passed the rolls Hikari had just passed to him, onto Eiji. He noticed that Hikari had placed two rolls onto his plate. Apparently Mrs. Kikumaru wasn’t the only one who thought he needed fattening up.

            “You’re a doctor?” asked Mayu surprised.

            “Not yet. I’m still just a medical student-“

            “How are you still single?!” interupted Junko. “You’re _too_ perfect to be human.”  Oishi blushed and chuckled awkwardly.

            “Leave him alone,” reiterated Tomo.

            “I SWEAR IT! UNCLE EIJI AND DADDY SAID SO!” yelled Sora, her voice carrying to the adult’s table.

            “He’s even wearing all black and has dark hair! That’s how you can tell he’s in the Mafia!” added Megumi. Jun and Eiji burst out laughing, Hikari shot them a glare.

            “Eiji?” asked Oishi fixing him with a look. “Care to elaborate?”

            “Sora and Megumi think you’re in the Mafia,” Eiji explained through his laughter.

            “Oishi?! In the Mafia?! That’s absurd,” said Tomo, Chiyo and the elder Kikumarus nodded their agreement.

            “This is all because Jun and Eiji told Sora that Shiro was in the Mafia!” said Hikari as she leaned behind Oishi to whack Eiji upside the head. Eiji let out a squawk of surprise and then glared at Hikari.

            “No!” laughed Jun. “We told her that you could spot someone in the Mafia because they have dark hair and wear all black.” Eiji started laughing again.

            “I can see it now, Oishi as the Godfather!” he said. Oishi looked over at him.

            “How?!” he asked, and then  continued. “Besides, I thought we decided that Fuji was the Godfather.” Eiji paused thoughtfully.

            “Well, I supposed Fujiko seems more inherently evil… but you were always ‘looking out for the family,’” said Eiji quoting the movie.

            “Okay,” interrupted Mrs. Kikumaru. “Enough Mafia talk.” Then a few minutes passed in relative peace as all the adults began too eat.

            “This is delicious Mrs. Kikumaru,” said Oishi politely.

            “Oh, Thank you dear,” smiled Mrs. Kikumaru. “But I can’t take all the credit, Eiji, Chiyo, Mayu and Junko helped as well… but if you like it that much, you can definitely have the leftovers when you go back to school,” she said smiling pleasantly.

            “I couldn’t-“

            “You can’t cook, how else are you gonna eat,” stated Eiji through a large bite of mashed potatoes.

            “I can make-“

            “Ramen doesn’t count, anybody can put water in a cup and microwave it,” announced Eiji interrupting Oishi’s defense.

            “Ah, so that’s it! You can’t cook!” announced Mayu triumphantly. Oishi and Eiji turned to look at her confused. “Your last girlfriend left you because you couldn’t cook.” Eiji burst out laughing again, relieved to see that Oishi was taking the brunt of their well meant but misplaced match making, not him. Oishi looked at Eiji pleading, silently begging to get him out of the situation.

            “Oh, that doesn’t matter, it just makes you human,” said Hikari patting Oishi on the back. “I can’t cook either.”

            “No, that just makes _you_ a freak of nature, you come from a line of extraordinary cooks and still manage to burn water,” Eiji said sticking out his tongue at her.

            “Freak of nature?! Look who’s talking! There’s no way you could pull off those acrobatics if you actually had bones!” Hikari shot back.

            “It doesn’t matter,” said Junko interrupting the siblings’ argument. “We can just set you up with a woman who loves to cook!” Oishi gave a nervous chuckle.

            “It’s really okay, I don’t have time for a girlfriend right now-“

            “That’s just nonsense!” said Mayu.

            “There’s always time to be in love!” said Junko.

            “We’ll pick one that’s low maintenance, and a wonderful cook!” smiled Mayu.

            “Leave him alone,” said Tomo once again coming to Oishi’s defense.

            “Hey Shiro,” called Eiji leaning behind his sister and Oishi. Shiro leaned back cautiously as he looked at Eiji, this had been the sibling giving him the hardest time, although he seemed much friendlier with the newcomer here. “I hope you know how to cook, because if you don’t both of you are going to starve!”

            “EIJI!” screeched Hikari lunging at him as he backed away and attempted to hide behind Oishi.

            “Nya! Oishi! Save me!” he mock pleaded, clinging to Oishi’s arm. Oishi smiled and shook his head, time for payback, for leaving him to Mayu and Junko.

            “You’re on your own,” Eiji shot him a glare that held no real anger.

            “That’s not fair!”

            “Not on Christmas you two,” said Mr. Kikumaru stopping Hikari and Eiji’s fight. Hikari shot him one last glare.

            “On the 26th I’ll get my revenge,” she mouthed to him, Eiji just stuck out his tongue in response, and dinner and then dessert continued on without any incidents. 


	4. December 24 part 3

After dinner Kagome and Akira came running over to where Eiji was sitting on the couch talking to Oishi.

            “Uncle Eiji! Come have a snowball fight with us! You can be on my team!” said Kagome.

            “The Mafia Man can come too, he can be on my team!” announced Akira. Eiji gave a snort of amusement at Oishi being called ‘The Mafia Man’.  “He’s gotta be really good! Everyone knows that to get into the Mafia you have to pass the snowball fight test!” announced Akira as if his word was law.

            “You’ll come right?” Kagome asked Eiji again. He glanced over at Oishi who shrugged his shoulders.

            “Okay!” he said and allowed himself to be dragged over to the front door by his oldest niece as she pulled on her boots and coat. Akira followed suit and Oishi came walking over only a few steps behind.

            “The Mafia Man?” teased Eiji with a grin.

            “It’s all your fault from what I hear,” replied Oishi with a grin of his own as he too grabbed his coat and gloves before following Eiji and his nieces and nephews out into the snowy yard. Apparently the teams were the girls and Eiji, against Oishi and the boys.

\---

            “Isn’t that sweet,” smiled Chiyo as she watched, the kids, and Eiji and Oishi out in the front yard having a snowball fight.

Hikari joined her at the window and watched in amusement as the little kids threw snowballs willy-nilly, no one actually successfully hitting anyone else. Then of course there were the two bigger kids, Eiji and Oishi, who were targeting each other. She laughed as she saw her little brother get behind his doubles partner and shove a handful of snow down the back of his shirt. Oishi for his part jumped, whirled around and gave chase as Eiji ran to the other side of the yard. He easily caught him and brought him to the ground. He then yelled something to the kids, who all came running over and tackled their poor uncle even deeper into the snow.

“They’re going to make great parents some day,” sighed Chiyo as she smiled. Hikari looked at her stunned, and then slowly grinned.

“You know.”

“About them?… yes, I’ve known for a while, a couple of years at least” she nodded. “… How long have you known?”

“Well I don’t know when it started, but the first time I realized they were together was back when they first started going to college, you know how Eiji used to get all depressed, it was pretty obvious what the source of that depression was, it wasn’t just us he was homesick for” smirked Hikari.  Chiyo looked surprised.

“That puts them together for seven years,” she whispered. Hikari nodded solemnly.

“I know, and who knows how long they were together before I figured it out… I think Eiji is afraid to tell everyone,” sighed Hikari. Mrs. Kikumaru came up behind her two daughters and put an arm around their shoulders and smiled out the window at her grandchildren. Hikari and Chiyo tensed. Had she heard them?

“… he shouldn’t be” she remarked after a moment.

“Mom?” asked Chiyo shocked.

“All I’ve ever wanted is for you all to be happy,” she said as she pulled her daughters closer. “And you’ve all found such wonderful spouses” she smiled at her daughters.

“…when you were younger I used to stand here and try to imagine what kind of men you two would marry, and what kind of women your brothers would fall in love with, and I never could come up with a good picture… but then one day that little boy was pulled into our house,” she said nodding to Oishi who was back to actually having a snowball fight, apparently his prey had escaped. “And suddenly… no matter what kind of woman I tried to imagine for Eiji, I couldn’t get a image of him out of my head, I decided then that Eiji would need to find a girl exactly like Oishi… but I guess he did better, he didn’t need to find a girl, he just needed to find Oishi.” Smiled Mrs. Kikumaru.

“So…. You’re okay with it all?” asked Hikari just as surprised as her older sister. Mrs. Kikumaru smiled and nodded.

“You should tell Eiji that,” said Chiyo. “Then he could start bringing Oishi to family things, and Oishi could officially become a part of the family-“

“He’s been an official part of the family for years,” sighed Mrs. Kikumaru. “I was trying to be subtle, letting Eiji bring him on his own,”

“Mom, this _is_ Eiji were talking about here. He doesn’t understand subtle,” said Hikari.

“Or does he… They’ve been able to hide their relationship from everyone else for at least seven years, I’d say that qualifies as a great example of subtly,” said Chiyo.

“Seven years?” asked Mrs. Kikumaru. “I’ve only known about them for four,”

“Yeah, they’ve been getting more and more obvious lately… I think they’re really starting to get serious,” said Hikari. Chiyo shook her head and once more disagreed with her little sister.

“No. They’ve been together for seven years, I have a feeling they became serious long ago.” She sighed.

“Does Dad know?” Hikari asked her mother.

“I don’t think so… but I didn’t know that you two knew,”

“Would Dad care?” asked Chiyo. Mrs. Kikumaru was proud that she was able to smile and answer her girls.

“No…. he won’t care… If your brother ran off, joined the circus and came back with a gorilla as his spouse your father wouldn’t mind as long as Eiji was happy.”

“You guys are just great,” said Chiyo as she fought back tears and hugged her mother. She really did have a wonderful, loving and understanding family. She was most definitely proud to be a Kikumaru.

            “Honey what’s wrong?” asked Jiro coming over to Chiyo, noticing that his wife was crying.

            “Nothing, nothing’s wrong… in fact, everything will be alright,” she smiled as she released her mother and hugged Jiro. Jiro looked confused but patted her back soothingly.

            “Has anyone seen Harata, Megumi or Kinta?” asked Junko as she came over to the group by the window with Tomo following closely behind.  “Oh there they are… they really do love their Uncle Eiji,” she said as she spotted her three older children having a snowball fight. Then she saw Eiji do some kind of jumping dive and knock Oishi’s feet out from under him, knocking him down into the snow. His gave Oishi a smirk that clearly said payback. Then he shoved Oishi’s face down deeper into the snow. Tomo gave a chuckle at seeing that.

            “…Who exactly is he?” asked Junko sounding puzzled as she scrutinized Oishi.

            “Who? Oishi?” asked Tomo as if he thought it was obvious who Oishi was. “Oishi is… Oishi is… well, he’s just Oishi… there’s not really a way to explain him,” said Tomo with a shrug. “He’s Eiji’s friend… He’s always been there, and always will be… Back when they were in middle and high school, they were both in the Tennis club and were a doubles pair… what were they called again?” Tomo asked his sisters.

            “The Golden Pair,” said Hikari with a smirk. Tomo may not realize it, but he had basically just placed Eiji and Oishi together forever, as one inseparable entity. He probably didn’t know that they were _together_ together, but he did understand that they were closer than best friends. Shiro, Jun and Mayu then came over to see what the group was talking about.

            “But the word you’re looking for is soul mates,” amended Chiyo with a smile. Junko looked over at Chiyo surprised and then turned to glare at Tomo.

            “Tomo! Why didn’t you tell me!” she demanded. Tomo looked confused.

            “Tell you what?”

            “That your little brother was gay,” said stated matter-of-factly. Tomo looked at her as if she had just grown a second head.

            “What?” asked Jun looking just as flabbergasted as his older brother.

            “We should have seen it sooner,” Mayu told Junko, “Now that I think about it, it was rather obvious that he didn’t like the women we showed him, any of the women… but if you guys had told us earlier we could have set up with a different category of our friends”

            “Oishi makes sense now too… handsome, polite, a doctor… it follows the old adage. _All the perfect ones are gay_ ,” sighed Junko.

            “Wait a second,” began Jun but Shiro cut him off.

            “So does that mean he’s going to get interrogated now?” The Kikumaru siblings all blinked at him, but Mayu, Junko and Jiro nodded in agreement to Shiro’s statement. They’d all gone through the Kikumaru inquisition, so this man had to as well.

            “No. _He’s Oishi_ … there’s no need to interrogate him, we already know what he’s like…and, well, _he’s Oishi_ ,” said Chiyo failing at her attempt to explain the family’s relationship with Oishi.

            “Besides which, we spent his entire childhood teasing him, he got traumatized by us _way_ earlier,” added Hikari.

            “Back the truck up!” said Tomo suddenly, as he held up his hands to stop the conversation. “Eiji’s _not_ gay.”  Jun nodded, there was no way their little brother was gay.

            “What do you mean he’s not gay? He’s obviously flirting with that man out there,” said Jiro pointing his thumb over his shoulder at where Eiji still had Oishi pinned in the snow.

            “What Tomo and Jun are trying to say is” began Chiyo cutting into the argument “… well, Eiji’s not exactly gay…. He and Oishi have just always been together, they’re meant to be together, there was never another person to even consider in their lives… so it was never a question of being straight of gay, they just always had each other,” said Chiyo. There was a moment of silence as everyone allowed the conversation to sink in.

            “You guys are taking this pretty well,” Hikari told Tomo and Jun.

            “It really should surprise us… it’s not everyday that your find out your little brother is dating a man,” said Jun.

            “But then again… it is Eiji and Oishi, it’s not that far of a leap… and you learn to expect the unexpected with them,” added Tomo.

            “I’ve known your little brother for 8 years now… how am I just now finding out about this Oishi?” Jiro asked.

            “Do you have a problem with their relationship,” said Chiyo fixing him with a stern look.

            “No.” he said, “Not really, I just find it odd that this relationship suddenly appeared.”

            “That’s what we’ve been trying to explain,” said Mrs. Kikumaru softly. “This was not something that just happened over night… they’ve been like this for years… I guess you could say they’ve been slowing falling in love with each other since the day they met.” The Kikumaru children all smiled at the truth behind their mother’s words, she’d hit the nail on the head. That was exactly what had happened with them. That was another reason why they had all failed to be stunned by the sudden realization, they’d grown up watching the two get closer each and every day.

            “That’s so sweet,” sniffed Mayu as she turned to look at them once more. This time Oishi had gotten away and they were standing on opposite sides of the yard, Oishi was hiding behind a tree and Eiji was ducking down below a bush, both readying to throw a snowball, no doubt perfectly in synch with the other.

            “So…” began Hikari as she looked at the majority of the family assembled in front of her. “No one actually minds that they’re together? right?” Of course she hadn’t _really_ been expecting any disagreements from her brothers, but was glad to see that Mayu and Junko looked positively ecstatic at the thought of her brother being in love. Jiro leaned over and put an arm around Chiyo’s waist.

            “Well, he’s happy like you wanted… and I guess, that’s all that matters,” he said, and Chiyo began to sniff again at her husband’s ready acceptance of her brother’s situation.

            But the one Hikari most cared about had failed to respond, Shiro let out a sigh and then smiled at Hikari.

            “Of course I don’t mind, you know I have my fair share of gay friends.” Hikari smiled and hugged him tight.

            “Now all that needs to happen is for them to announce it… and we have to let them announce it for themselves, it _has_ to be their decision,” Mrs. Kikumaru informed her family sternly. 


	5. December 24 part 4

About 20 minutes later, Eiji and Oishi came trooping back into the house followed closely by the children, who had all declared their official approval of ‘The Mafia Man’ as Uncle Eiji’s friend, and snowball fight master.

Upon seeing the 8 soaked, and bedraggled figures, Mrs. Kikumaru had them immediately towel off and then she was going to have them go change into dry clothes. She had plenty of kids clothing for her grandchildren, and Eiji probably had a change of clothes up in his room, but Oishi... She paused as she looked at him. She hadn’t exactly gotten a chance to examine him closely yet. He had grown, he was still on the skinny side in her opinion, but knew that most would consider him lean. He was also now about four inches taller than Eiji, she sighed, the only person with clothes that would actually fit him would probably be Jun, for some reason he’d ended up being taller than both of his brothers and his father, not that they were by any means short.

“Jun,” called Mrs. Kikumaru, her aforementioned son came into the front hall and smiled at the aftermath of battle.

“So who won?” he asked his daughter. Sora looked up at him and proclaimed proudly that the girls had won.

“Did not! Mafia Man could have beat you all in an instant if Uncle Eiji hadn’t been picking on him!” declared Harata.

“We’ll get them next time,” said Oishi patting Harata on the shoulder, the little boy beamed up at him.

“You bet we will!” he answered enthusiastically, before turning to stick his tongue out at his little sister Megumi.

“Jun,” began Mrs. Kikumaru again, he had forgotten that she had called him over. “Let Oishi borrow a change of clothes-“

“No, I’ll be fine-“

“You’ll catch a cold if you stay in wet clothes all night you know that,” said Eiji. “You’ve told me the same thing enough times… and you’re supposed to be the doctor,” scoffed Eiji.

“Come on Oishi, its no big deal,” said Jun grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him up the stairs.

“Eiji, you need to go change too,” she told her youngest son, he nodded and then ran up the stairs after Oishi and Jun. Mrs. Kikumaru then turned to her grandchildren.

“Come on chibis we’ll go find you guys some dry clothes,” she smiled and ushered them down the hall to the laundry room where she kept some of her children’s old clothes.

“After you get dressed we can watch the Rudolph movie” said Mrs. Kikumaru, and then her grandchildren all began to babble excitedly about the movie, and the previously ended snowball fight.

\---

After he had finished changing, Eiji had gone on a short quest to find Oishi, he had disappeared from Jun’s room and no one had seen him. But Eiji did have a kind of sixth sense when it came to locating Oishi, and that sense lead him to the glass slider that lead out into the backyard, and low and behold there he was.

“Oishi?” asked Eiji stepping out into the backyard to see his partner standing in the middle of it looking up at the stars.

            “I was just thinking,” replied Oishi looking over at Eiji and smiling.

            “’bout what?” asked Eiji as he walked over and put his arm around Oishi’s waist, in response Oishi threw his arm around Eiji’s shoulder and pulled the other man closer to him.

            “I was just thinking that, I’m sorry I missed out on going to my grandparents, but… I wouldn’t have traded this, not for the world,” he said quietly. Eiji hugged him.

            “Me too… I’m glad the pass was closed and you couldn’t make it… I’m glad you thought to come here,” whispered Eiji. “Next time just think of it earlier so I don’t have to worry about you.”

            “Eiji? Worried about me? This really is a special occasion; I should let the papers know. Kikumaru Eiji really does worry,” teased Oishi. Eiji punched him in the shoulder.

            “Of course I worry about you stupid! And it’s all your fault!” shot back Eiji. “I had to grow up with you always over worrying about everything! It had to rub off on me sometime!” Oishi pulled him closer and kissed him softly. Eiji fisted his hands in Oishi’s borrowed shirt and kissed him back passionately.

It really had been too long since they’d last kissed, among other things. If only they weren’t staying in his family home. Had it been his apartment, or Oishi’s, this kiss would have lead to so many more wonderful things, but alas, he was at home, and there was no way they would be able to stay quiet, they never could be, and his niece who was staying only one door over with her parents, was an exceptionally light sleeper. Reluctantly he pulled away from the kiss and just hugged Oishi tighter.

            “Nya! Oishi, that’s no fair! You know we can’t-” began Eiji before he was cut off by his own moan as Oishi kissed him once more.

            “Eiji. I love you.” Whispered Oishi. “I know Hikari’s engagement is bugging you… but what you and I have is a whole lot stronger than any engagement.” Curse Oishi. It was statements like that, and all of Oishi’s other mushy sentiments that made his knees go weak.

            “I love you,” Eiji whispered back and this time he initiated the kiss.

            “Has anyone seen Eiji or Oishi?” asked a voice from inside the house and both men instantly sprang apart. It was good timing too because the next second Chiyo stuck her head out into the backyard.

            “There you guys are! Come on, we’re going to start the movie now,” said Chiyo. Both men nodded mutely and then followed Chiyo back into the house.

\---

A few minutes later found the entire Kikumaru clan and Oishi gathered in the family room watching a very old American movie about Rudolph (think of the 60’s claymation Christmas movies, or more specifically _Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer_ , I don’t know why but to this day that is still my all time favorite Christmas movie)

Not to long after the movie had begun the children had all quickly dropped off to sleep due to full bellies and an exhausting snowball fight, but watching the movie was a tradition and the rest of them continued to watch it to the end.

But the children weren’t the only ones who fell asleep. Mrs. Kikumaru smiled as she looked over to the corner where he youngest son was sound asleep with his head pillowed on his partner’s shoulder. Her smile grew when she realized that Oishi too, was out like a light, and was resting his own head atop Eiji’s. When she scanned the rest of the room she saw that everyone’s eyes were fixed on the screen, well everyone except her youngest daughter’s. She smiled as she saw Hikari watching Eiji and Oishi out of the corner of her eye with a silly little grin on her face.  Hikari then noticed that her mother was watching too and placed a finger to her lips.

A few minutes before the movie was over Hikari made her way over to her Eiji and Oishi and gently shook them awake.

“Hey guys wake up,” she whispered. Eiji blinked and Oishi rubbed his eyes as he sat up straighter.

“Nya, is it morning already?” Eiji murmured sleepily. Oishi looked around puzzled, as if he didn’t know where he was.

“No, you guys just fell asleep on the couch, but everyone’s leaving now so you have to say bye,” she told them just as the movie ended and Mr. Kikumaru flicked on the lights. Both Eiji and Oishi blinked in response to the sudden light and then reluctantly stood. The adults were all gathering up their respective sleeping children.

Tomo, Chiyo and their families stopped at the door and waved goodbye to Jun, Mayu, Eiji, Oishi, Hikari, Shiro and the Elder Kikumarus before they left to walk a few blocks over.

“Okay. G’night,” yawned Eiji as he gave them a slight wave before grabbing Oishi’s hand and continuing upstairs to his room from the front door, and that was all anyone saw of them until the next morning.


	6. December 25

Everyone in the house had been roused at an ungodly early hour by an excited Sora. Most had recovered quickly and changed into their clothes for the day, before coming down to the family room to await the other half of the family.

Oishi had long since gotten the hang of waking up all too early and having to be right on the ball for school for it to affect him for too long. As such, he was the first one down to the kitchen, other than Sora, who was now much friendlier to him that he wasn’t wearing black and therefore wasn’t part of the mafia.

This wasn’t the first time Oishi had spent the night in the Kikumaru household, and he did know his way around the kitchen quite well, and although Eiji constantly teased him about not being able to cook anything, he _was_ a pro at making coffee. It had been necessary to survive college, and he had a feeling it would continue to be necessary throughout his residency and the rest of his life. He quickly gathered all the materials necessary and set to work with Sora following him around the kitchen.

Slowly one by one the Kikumarus, Mayu and Shiro made their way down into the kitchen and happily accepted their coffee. Well, all but one Kikumaru.

“Sora,” said Jun as he too noticed who was missing. “You want to do Daddy a favor?” he asked her. She nodded eagerly; she would do anything that would help them get closer to present opening time.  “You remember which room Uncle Eiji’s in,” she nodded and Oishi couldn’t help but grin knowing what was coming.  “Go wake up Uncle Eiji!” Sora grinned and took off running up the stairs.  There was a suspicious amount of pounding and then a shrill giggle and then silence. A few seconds later a very sleep tousled and frustrated looking Eiji appeared in the kitchen with Sora on his hip. He glared over at Jun.

“You’re lucky she’s cute,” he growled before dropping the girl in her father’s lap and dropped down into a chair across the table from them. He dropped his head down on the table, and appeared to go back asleep. That is, until Oishi walked over to him with a large cup of coffee. Eiji glared up at him as he took the proffered cup.

“It’s too early to be that cheery,” he growled as he took a sip of coffee. Mrs. Kikumaru was about to scold Eiji for his attitude when she saw that Oishi was grinning and shaking his head at Eiji, and she knew, that somehow, Oishi had understood Eiji perfectly.

“Just drink your coffee,” he told him sinking into the seat to Eiji’s right.

“Mommy! How much longer till we get to open presents?” Sora asked Mayu.

“Well, not till after breakfast. Grandma and Uncle Eiji are making cinnamon rolls, remember?” Mayu told Sora with a smile.

“Well what are we waiting for then?” asked Sora.  “Uncle Eiji-“ she paused as she looked over at her uncle, he was seemingly asleep at the table again. Oishi gave him a shake and Eiji woke up again.

“Up late last night?” asked Hikari with a smirk. Eiji blushed bright red but attempted to hide it behind his coffee cup, conveniently enough, Oishi also chose that moment to fix another pot of coffee and disappeared into the kitchen. Jun and Mrs. Kikumaru shot Hikari a look that said watch it.

“No, someone just decided to get me up at six,” said Eiji recovering, he always was slow in the mornings, as he looked over at his niece who didn’t look at all apologetic.

“Uncle Eiji! You and Grandma have to make cinnamon rolls now so we can all eat breakfast and then go open presents!” proclaimed Sora. “If the Mafia Man helps you it’ll go faster.” Eiji blinked at her.

“If Oishi helps it’ll go way slower…” then Eiji blushed a shade darker. “I mean, he can’t cook and… he’ll screw all the food up,” finished Eiji lamely. Geez, he just needed to keep his mouth shut, and wait another five minutes for the coffee to kick in. Hikari grinned and found herself wondering just what they got up to in the kitchen that would make everything go slower. Jun reached around Mayu to whack Hikari upside the head.

“Get your mind out of the gutter! You’re going to ruin it all!” he whispered fiercely.

“What are you talking about?! I always tease them like this. Have for 7 years, there’s no point in stopping now!” she whispered back.  Oishi chose that moment to come back into the room with a fresh pot of coffee.

“Who wants a refill?” he asked pleasantly and almost all the cups came up for a refill.

\---

Breakfast had been a fast affair, although if one asked the children it seemed to drag on forever, they all wanted open the presents.  But breakfast had consisted of much talking, and arguing over who was woken the earliest. There was a bit of debate whether or not to count a three am feeding for baby Suzu as the earliest wake up.

But before long everyone was seated around the tree in the family room and each grandchild had a pile of presents surrounding them, and each adult had a present or two of their own in their lap. Even Oishi, who had been a surprise arrival, had a number of packages.

Once the signal was given the kids all excitedly got to work unwrapping their presents, with varying reactions to what was inside, and the parents had a field day taking pictures, before they set to work on their own presents. There were loud shouts of ‘thank you’s and ‘you’re welcome’s directed to the present giver and receiver and squeals of delight when one found something they had truly wanted.

Oishi was trying to stay out of the scene as much as possible, though he was constantly being dragged back into it by, Eiji, Hikari and sometimes even Mrs. Kikumaru herself.

“Nya Oishi, stop hiding,” Eiji had whispered as joined Oishi on the floor in front of the couch to leave room for the women in the family.

“I’m not hiding, I just didn’t want to-“

“I’m gonna hit you if you say intrude one more time,” warned Eiji. Oishi gave him a small smile and Eiji rolled his eyes as he threw an arm around his partner’s shoulders. “Oishi, you’re family, everyone’s been saying so… just listen to them,” he whispered, taking advantage of a second where no one was looking to give Oishi a quick peck on the cheek.  Oishi smiled at him and wrapped his own arm around Eiji’s waist and pulled the redhead closer to him. He took a moment to scan the room to makes sure no one was looking and then handed Eiji a present.

“This isn’t your only present,” he told him quietly. “I’m just going to wait till we’re alone to give you your other one.”

“The other one is a _good_ one,” asked Eiji with a smirk, clearly hinting at something else. Oishi smiled and shook his head.

“It’s a good one but not in the way you’re thinking.”

“Well I guess that’ll just have to be my other present to you… later…” said Eiji with a promising grin before he turned to unwrap his present.

He carefully unwrapped it, making sure that he didn’t tear any of the paper, after all it _was_ a present from Oishi, things like these had to be cherished for as long as possible. Besides, he knew that Oishi tended to get nervous about gifts and this would give him time to ramble out any insecurities he had about the present before Eiji declared he absolutely loved it, because really, Oishi knew him far too well to buy the wrong present.

“I thought you would like it, it’s not exactly the most fun thing in the world but it will be helpful, but if you don’t like it I can always exchange it for something else.” Eiji looked at him.

“Hoi. Now will you let me finish opening it?” he asked with a grin. Oishi nodded reluctantly and Eiji folded back the paper. It was a hardback book, an expensive one at that, it was the child psychology book that Eiji had been eyeing in the store for almost four months now. He wasn’t normally a person who liked studying, or books but this would come in very handy for when he was a teacher.

He hadn’t mentioned the book to Oishi, not once. But that’s what made Oishi the perfect lover, he had known anyways.

“Oishi…” began Eiji, he still couldn’t tear his eyes away from the book. “Thank you! It’s exactly what I wanted!” he said and hugged Oishi tightly. “Thank you so much! How’d you know I wanted it?” asked Eiji though the question was muffled by Oishi’s shirt.

            “How could I miss you drooling over it every time we passed by the store on our way to dinner,” said Oishi with a chuckle. Eiji hugged him tighter.

            “Thank you so much!”

            “GOD DAMNIT!!” yelled Jun jumping out of his seat suddenly, Eiji and Oishi broke apart as everyone turned to stare at Jun.

            “Jun!” admonished Chiyo. “Watch the language! There are little kids here!”

            “But I can’t take it anymore!”

            “What do you mean _you_ can’t take it anymore! You’ve only known for what? Ten hours! … I’ve been waiting for seven fucking years!” yelled Hikari standing up as well.

            “Hikari! Language!” said Chiyo again.

            “So stop waiting!” said Tomo joining the sibling yelling match.

            “Stop it!” came Mrs. Kikumaru’s call over the voices of her squabbling children. “We already talked about this, we have to wait for him to make the decision. We can’t make him.”

            “What’s going on?” asked Mr. Kikumaru. Mrs. Kikumaru and his four oldest children turned to face him.

            “Nothing dear,” said Mrs. Kikumaru.

            “You missed out on the conversation Dad,” said Tomo.

            “It’d take too long to explain,” answered Chiyo.

            “What’s everyone yelling about?” asked Eiji standing up. All four siblings turned to face him in unison.

            “YOU!” they yelled. Eiji took a step back surprised.

            “What?!” he recovered quickly enough.

            “Just get it over with!” yelled Jun.

            “You need to stop lying!” said Tomo.

            “It’s not fair to keep us in the dark Eiji,” said Hikari.

“We just want you to be happy,” said Chiyo reiterating her words from two mornings ago. Eiji blinked, his family had suddenly gone mad.

“I’m not lying…” said Eiji.

“Eiji honey, you’re a terrible liar.”

“What are you guys talking about?” he tried again. He couldn’t very well prove that he wasn’t lying if he didn’t even know what he was being accused of lying about.

“You. Are. So. DENSE!” yelled Hikari balling her hands into fists.

“Can’t we just tell him?!” yelled Tomo.

“Tell me what?!” yelled Eiji, but his outburst was completely ignored by the rest of family.

“No. We’re not going to tell him.” Said Mrs. Kikumaru. Then Chiyo decided to take it all into her own hands since she seemed to be the only one capable of rationality at the moment.

“We don’t care,” she stated calmly, as she turned to face Eiji. That just served to confuse her baby brother more. Jun let out a frustrated yell and then walked over to grab his little brother’s shoulders.

“We know all about _it_ ,” he said and then all hell broke loose.

“JUN YOU IDIOT! IT HAS TO BE HIS DECISION!”

“KIKUMARU JUN! I RAISED YOU TO LISTEN TO ME!”

“NOW YOU’VE DONE IT!”              Jun was pulled away by his other siblings and given many a firm whack upside his head, his shoulder, basically any accessible limb was punched.

“YOU KNOW ALL ABOUT WHAT?” yelled Eiji to be heard above the din, and in that moment when there was an all out Kikumaru feud going on the members were too distracted to register what Eiji had asked, and instead responded with the first thing that came to mind. The truth.

“OISHI!” they all yelled pointing to him as he sat in the corner observing. Eiji and Oishi both shot each other looks of pure terror. No way. They couldn’t possibly know! They weren’t supposed to know! They’d kept the whole relationship secret for so long, they didn’t want it to all blow up in their faces right now. 

And in that second the Kikumarus came to their senses and realized what they had just done, and dead silence fell over the room. Eiji slowly turned back around to his family, all the color had drained from his face and he appeared to be seconds away from passing out. Oishi didn’t look much better.

“… You… know…” he breathed.

“Well now we do,” said Mr. Kikumaru speaking up for the first time since he’d been forcibly shoved from the conversation earlier.

“… how?” was the only thing Eiji could manage to say.

“Hikari told us,” said Jun pointing to his younger sister.

“I did no such thing! You intruded on a private conversation Mom, Chiyo and I were having about them!”

“When was this?” asked Mr. Kikumaru.

“Last night, I was watching the snowball fight… All I said is that they would make good parents someday and Hikari just ran with it!”

“You guys are NOT pinning this all on me!” squawked Hikari.

“You’re the one who’s known the longest and done nothing about it!” Tomo shot back. Eiji turned to look at Hikari.

“… How long have you known?” Hikari gave him a sheepish grin.

“Well, actually, I figured it when you were just starting college… but that’s beside the point! What Jun really meant to say-“

“What _you_ should have said!” Jun informed Hikari.

“Mom agreed with me not saying anything!” Hikari yelled back and it slowly dissolved into another sibling argument. Chiyo walked over to Eiji and placed a hand on either side of his shocked face.

“Eiji, what we’ve all been trying unsuccessfully to say is… we don’t mind. None of us do… we just want you, both of you,” she added nodding back at Oishi on the floor. “to be happy.” She finished with a smile as she leaned in and kissed her baby brother on the forehead.

“…’neesan…” breathed Eiji as he noticed her eyes beginning to water.

“You’ve been so depressed lately, and I wanted to help you but I didn’t know how,” cried Chiyo hugging him tightly. “I’ve known about you guys for three years and I haven’t said anything to help you realize that we were okay with it.”

“We’re _all_ okay with it,” added Mrs. Kikumaru gesturing to the rest of the family in the room who had been watching the fight.

“You guys are really… okay with it … all of you?” asked Eiji scanning the room. He was met by reassuring nods from everyone, even his nieces and nephew who didn’t have a clue what was going on, but had all fled to the laps of their parents who weren’t in the fight.

“We’re really _all_ okay with it,” reassured Tomo.

“In fact, we should have seen it a lot sooner,” added Jun.

“Come on Eiji… go on and tell us,” said Hikari with a smile. Eiji looked back at Oishi who had a matching look of surprise on his face. Eiji gave him a half smile, which Oishi returned. Could this really be happening? Could they really have found out? Was _this_ the reaction he had be nervous about receiving for nine long years? Or was it all just a dream?

“We’re waiting mister,” said Chiyo releasing her hold on her brother and crossing her arms over her chest as she backed up to stand with the rest of her siblings. Eiji turned to Oishi and then held out a hand to pull his partner up off the ground, just as they had done a million times before, during the matches throughout their school career. Oishi gave him a nod, took a hold of Eiji’s hand and pulled himself up. He kept a firm hold of Eiji’s hand as he came to stand beside his redheaded lover.

“Mom, Dad… everyone…” began Eiji with a slight quirk of his lips that was steadily becoming a smile. “I want you to meet Oishi… we’ve been together for almost 10 years now,” said Eiji slowly, secretly enjoying the looks of surprise on his family’s faces, especially Hikari’s. Mrs. Kikumaru was the first to recover. She smiled and began to cry.

“Well it’s about time you brought someone home,” she said as she walked over to the not-so new couple and hugged them, she then turned to Oishi. “Welcome to the family, again.”

“Congratulations!” said Chiyo. And then suddenly everyone was congratulating them and hugging them and there were lots of people smiling and it seemed that Chiyo and Hikari had joined Mrs. Kikumaru in her crying.

“You seriously don’t mind,” said Oishi finally speaking for the first time since the outburst.

“No. We really don’t” answered Mr. Kikumaru. Oishi smiled and then turned to Eiji.

“Well in that case, I suppose I can give you your other Christmas present, well I suppose it’s really more of a Christmas surprise than present,” said Oishi. Eiji looked at him confused, he had assumed it would be at Oishi’s apartment, not here. Oishi gave him a smile and then slowly grabbed a hold of Eiji’s hands and dropped to one knee. Chiyo and Hikari let out identical squeals and Eiji looked down at Oishi with wide eyes.

“Eiji, you’ve been my best friend for as long as I can remember, you’ve always been there for me, and I can’t even imagine playing a match without you by my side, just like I can’t imagine living the rest of my life without you, so… will you continue to make me the happiest man alive… Kikumaru Eiji, will you marry me?” asked Oishi looking up at him. Eiji was too shocked to say anything for a moment.

“Goddamnit Eiji you’d better say yes!” yelled Hikari.

“If you don’t I will!” added Chiyo.  Eiji barely even registered his sisters’ shouts as he slowly smiled down at Oishi and then dropped down to his knees as well, with tears filling his eyes.

“Of course you I will you big dummy!” he yelled and then kissed Oishi. There was clapping and a lot of squealing, from the female members of the family, as the pair continued to kiss.

“Both my babies are getting married,” said Mrs. Kikumaru crying happily as she leaned into her husband’s embrace. Hikari and Chiyo were both hugging each other and crying as well.

“Well I guess that answers the question of who the uke is,” remarked Jun.

“JUN!” yelled Tomo, Chiyo and Hikari all leaning over to smack him upside the head. But really nothing could ruin this morning.

Eiji and Oishi finally pulled apart.

“This isn’t a Christmas surprise, it’s a Christmas miracle,” Eiji told Oishi quietly, surprised to find out that he wasn’t the only one crying, Oishi had been too. “Everything’s just perfect,” he whispered.

“Well almost everything…” smiled Oishi. “We still haven’t told my parents or the guys,”

“Fujiko knows,”

“Well yes, but that’s Fuji, he probably knew back in middle school,” agreed Oishi laughing.

“But then there’s also the whole marriage thing…” said Eiji trailing off. “Men can’t legally marry each other.”

“No. They can’t. But that’s doesn’t matter, we know that we’d be married,”

“We’d have been married years ago,” agreed Eiji with a grin.

“And if things ever change, we’ll be the first ones in line to get married,” added Oishi with a smile as he leaned in to kiss Eiji again. He then pulled back suddenly.

“I almost forgot the whole gift part.” He said as he pulled out a small velvet box with a bright red bow on top. He opened the box and took out a simple golden band, he gave a small smile.

“… It’s kind of cheesy but…” he trailed off as Eiji took the ring from him and inspected it, in the inside there was something engraved.

“… The Golden Pair, till death due us part, and even then,” read Eiji his breath catching on the last three words, and then, once again he started to cry. Oishi took it back from him and carefully placed it on his ring finger. Eiji then lunged at him and knocked him backwards as he proceeded to shower his face with kisses, which Oishi gladly returned.

“That is just too cute,” smiled Hikari.

“Is that an actual ring?!” stated Chiyo sounding shocked. Eiji and Oishi stopped kissing at her shout. Eiji smiled and held out his hand.

“You were right Hikari ‘neesan. It _was_ my turn soon.”

“You planned this all,” said Chiyo. Oishi shook his head.

“No it was supposed to be a promise ring… but in light of recent events this seemed more fitting.” Eiji hugged him tighter.

“Much better,” he agreed as he kissed him once more.


	7. Epilogue

“Hey Fuji? What are you doing here so early?” asked Shiro as he walked into the studio.

“I have a personal project I wanted to work on and needed to use some of Matsumoto-sensei’s materials.” Answered Fuji with a smile.

“How was your holiday?” asked Shiro as he came to sit at a workstation across from Fuji.

“It was a nice break, and I got to see my little brother. I haven’t seen him since he joined a competitive tennis circuit last year… How was yours?”

“… Interesting,” responded Shiro after a moment. “I got to meet my fiancé’s family.”

“Really, How’d that go?” asked Fuji looking up from his project.

“They’re nice folks… a little on the crazy side, and they’re very loud, but I think they accept me,” said Shiro with a smile. “I wasn’t so sure I was going to survive at first. Her brothers didn’t warm up to me that fast and her youngest brother was a pain in my side, I think he was purposely trying to annoy me,” sighed Shiro. Fuji nodded.

“Yes, I remember when my big sister brought home her first boyfriend, Yuuta and I and teased him mercilessly, I think it’s in the sibling rulebook, and you being an only child wouldn’t have received a copy,” smiled Fuji as he returned to his work. There were a few minutes of silence and then Shiro spoke up again.

“What are you working on?” he asked curiously.

“Oh, it’s a kind of a photo collage. I have these two friends that are perfect for each other, and they’ve been dating for a while now, but didn’t really tell anyone about it. Of course I figured it out very early on in their relationship… We’re having a reunion of sorts next week and they said they had an announcement to make. I’m almost positive they’re going to actually come out of the closet and finally tell us all that they’re dating. I wanted to be able to give them this as sort of present for finally telling us, all the guys have known for a while that they were together, but this is just my way of proving to them that I’ve known from the beginning,” smiled Fuji as he held up the beginnings of the collage, so far there were only about ten photos on it. Shiro gasped and pointed to the pictures.

“I know them!” he said. Fuji cocked his head to the side and looked at Shiro.

“Are you sure you know them?” asked Fuji, other than art, and being Matsumoto’s grad students, he and Shiro didn’t have a single thing in common, and for him to know either Eiji or Oishi was highly unlikely.

“Positive! That’s the bratty brother!” said Shiro pointing to a picture of Eiji.

“The bratty brother?” asked Fuji raising an eyebrow. Now that was a new one to him… oh! “What did you say your fiancé’s name was?” asked Fuji.

“Hikari. Kikumaru Hikari… and that’s the brother that was picking on me the most,” said Shiro once more pointing to Eiji.  Okay, so that explained how he met Eiji, it must have been over Christmas when he was meeting the rest of the family, but it still didn’t explain Oishi.

“How do you know Oishi then?” asked Fuji. Shiro opened his mouth to say something and then closed it as he seemingly remembered something important.

“Wait… you said you were meeting them at some sort of reunion and that they had an announcement to make,” Fuji nodded slowly, what was Shiro trying to get at? “I’d hold off on giving them that present for now.”

“They’re not breaking up are they? They wouldn’t make _that_ an announcement … unless they were planning to stop being a doubles pair, that would certainly merit assembling everyone,” Fuji began muttering to himself trying to make sense of what could have gone wrong. Shiro chuckled and held up a hand to stop Fuji.

“No, nothing like that… you should just wait a few more weeks, Hikari told me that the date February 18th was significant to them-“

“Yeah, that’s would be their anniversary of when they were officially declared a doubles pair,” nodded Fuji.

“Yeah, wait to give it to them till then,”

“Why?”

“It’d make a great wedding present, well I suppose it’s not a real wedding, but a commitment ceremony or something like that, but I’m sure _that’s_ the announcement they’re actually going to make,” mused Shiro.

“WEDDING?!” shouted Fuji, clearly shocked. Shiro nodded.

“Yeah, they got engaged Christmas morning… if you ask me it seems like they’re rushing the whole thing, me and Hikari probably won’t get married till at least next fall-“

            “Engaged?!” said Fuji falling back into his chair, he needed to sit down, badly. Then slowly all the realizations were starting to hit home, his best friend was finally getting married to his longtime boyfriend. Fuji started to smile; it was just too good to be true. “Who proposed?” asked Fuji with a real smile. “You have to tell me all about it.”

            “It’s a long story really. Oishi showed up about 6 pm on Christmas Eve and was literally dragged into the house… then I’m not really sure how it all started but suddenly Hikari and her siblings were talking about how they would make good parents, and debating about when they had actually started dating. Her brothers had a hard time believing that their little brother was gay, they kept saying that gay wasn’t the right word. Then her mother made sure that no one had a problem with them being together, which obviously no one did, and then said that no one could say anything to them, that they had to be the ones to make the decision to tell the family… Which worked until the next morning when the middle brother, Jun, started yelling that he couldn’t take it anymore.  Then all her siblings and her mother got into a giant, vague, argument and ended up spilling the beans after about five minutes of yelling at each other.” Shiro paused to calm his laughter as he remembered the whole incident. “I’ve never seen anyone as pale as those two were, I thought that they were going to pass out for sure, but they didn’t… then when they finally believed that no one minded them being together Oishi just kind of dropped down on one knee and proposed… it was a little concerning because both Hikari and her sister said that if Eiji didn’t say yes, they were going too, but he eventually did say yes,” finished Shiro.

            “So… they’re engaged,” said Fuji with a smile as he shook his head. “I thought that they would just stay boyfriends forever… I never thought that either one of them would have the guts to actually come out and propose.”

            “Well, Oishi did say that it was intended to be a promise ring, and Eiji was apparently bothered by Hikari’s engagement to me, so instead of a promise ring they turned it into an engagement ring,” added Shiro.

            “Thank you Kazuma… It wouldn’t be good if I were to be surprised by something like that,” smiled Fuji.

            “… But you were,” said Shiro confused.

            “Yes, but I have the reputation of being a tensai, of knowing everything, and if I didn’t know about something this big I’d be in a lot of trouble,” smiled Fuji as he got back to work on his project, very pleased to know he’d just gotten a month and a half extension on it.

\---

            “Hello everyone,” smiled Fuji as he entered Kawamura sushi and was greeted by the majority of his old tennis club friends. Taka was behind the counter busily making sushi. Momo and Echizen were eating a platter at one of the tables, and Kaidoh, Inui and Tezuka were sitting at the counter.

            “Hello Fuji-sempai!” called Momo, Echizen just gave a small wave as they watched Fuji go to the counter and sit down next to Tezuka.

            “Fuji is 58.7% more excited about this reunion,” stated Inui. Fuji smiled.

            “Are you sure it’s only 58.7%… I feel like it should be 120%.” Responded Fuji. Tezuka looked over at him.

            “What’s going on?” Fuji knew something, something that the rest of them didn’t know.

            “Oh! Fuji… do you know what Oishi and Eiji plan on telling us?” asked Taka as he handed Fuji a glass of his favorite green tea. If anything Fuji’s grin got wider.

            “Saa… who knows?” he said with a shrug.

            “Fuji knows. I’m 100% correct.” Said Inui, in his own unique way he was asking for Fuji to spill the beans.

            “It’s not just Fuji-sempai who knows,” said Momo coming to join them. Fuji scrutinized Momo; he supposed it was possible that, with his animal instincts, Momo _had_ figured it out.

            “You do?” asked Fuji. Momo nodded.

            “Of course, they’re finally going to tell us that they’re together,” Fuji smiled, Momo’s skills had failed him.

            “Probability of that being the case, 43.9%” said Inui frowning.

            “What else could it be sempai?” asked Kaidoh.

            “Lets look at this logically… how long have they been together?” he got three responses in unison

            “Five years” from Momo.

            “Three years” from Kaidoh.

            “Four and a half years” from Tezuka.

            “THREE YEARS?! ARE YOU BLIND MAMUSHI!”

            “FIVE YEARS?! THERE’S NO WAY THEY’VE BEEN TOGETHER THAT LONG.” Inui let them continue their argument as he flipped through his notebook.

            “Four and a half years?” Fuji asked looking at Tezuka. “You don’t give them enough credit for being able to figure out their own feelings.”

            “My data suggest nine years, 10 months and 29 days,” said Inui interrupting all the arguments.

            “EH?! No way! Your data’s got to be way off!” said Momo.

            “No. That’s right,” answered Fuji.

            “You’ve really known about them for _that_ long Fuji?” asked Taka.

            “I’ve known about them before either of them actually confessed… who do you think set them up,” said Fuji with a smirk.

            “Well,” said Inui dragging them back to his original statement. “They’ve been together for almost 10 years… without ever telling us that they were together. They have also been together far longer than most of us had known, and kept it secret. The chances that they are finally announcing it… rather slim, thus 43.9%,” announced Inui.

            “Mada mada dane,” said Echizen coming to join them.

            “What’s that supposed to mean?!” said Momo with a glare.

            “It means… that it’s almost 50-50. It’s still likely that they are announcing some sort of relationship.” Answered Echizen, “The only ones who know for sure is them… and Fuji-sempai,” said Echizen fixing him with a stern look.

            “Tell us Fuji-sempai!” pleaded Momo. Fuji just shook his head.

            “You can wait to hear it from them”

            “But they’re already 10 minutes late! It’s not like Oishi-sempai to be late! Not at all!” said Momo.

            “My lips are sealed,” smiled Fuji as he went back to his tea. Leaving Momo to stomp back to his sushi and wait impatiently for another five minutes until the Golden Pair showed up.

\----      

There was a loud clatter as the door was thrown open and Eiji ran in.

            “SAFE!” he yelled, and a few seconds later Oishi came running in.

            “Ha! Beat you!” Eiji smiled sticking his tongue out at a panting Oishi.

            “Yeah… you … did,” said Oishi as he slowly regained his breath and stood up straighter.

            “YOU’RE LATE!” yelled Momo. Eiji blinked and pointed at Oishi.

            “It’s all Oishi’s fault,” Oishi looked over at him in shock.

            “It _is_ not!” Eiji just grinned in response.

            “Well, get on with it then,” said Echizen. Eiji and Oishi looked down at him puzzled.

            “Get on with what?” asked Oishi. Echizen frowned but Momo interrupted.

            “JUST COME OUT AND TELL US ALREADY!” snapped Momo. Eiji took a step back.

            “Oishi-“

            “Yeah I know… déjà vu.” Said Oishi looking just as flabbergasted.

            “Well… Okay… we’re been together for almost ten years now,” said Eiji.

            “Nine years, 10 months and 29 days,” amended Inui.

            “See Fuji-sempai! I was right!” said Momo with a smirk.

            “Oh… So you guys knew…” said Oishi. Then he turned to Eiji, “we’re awful actors,” and Eiji nodded in agreement. Apparently having been through this once already, made it easier to deal with whatever reactions they received.

            “Only Inui-sempai and Fuji-sempai knew you two went back that far,” said Echizen. “Everyone else only assumed it had been a few years.”

            “Well, congratulations you two,” smiled Taka.

            “Thanks Taka!” smiled Eiji. “But…” he began turning to look at Oishi. “We’re not quite done yet.”  Oishi came to stand beside Eiji with a smile of his own.

            “Fssh… what were you saying?” asked Kaidoh turning to smirk at Momo.

            “Shut-up!” glowered Momo.

            “This may come as kind of a shock-“ began Oishi.

            “Nothing you guys can say can shock us anymore,” said Momo recovering from his quick spat with Kaidoh.  Fuji gave a foreboding chuckle at that.

            “Anyways,” began Oishi again. “Keep February the 18th open okay.”

            “Why? What’s going on?” asked Taka. Eiji finally couldn’t contain it anymore; a wide grin crossed his face and the words literally exploded from his mouth.

            “WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!” Judging from the looks on the majority of the regulars’ faces they were _quite_ surprised, but then there was Fuji. He smiled and walked over to them.

            “Well it’s about time,” he said as he hugged them.

            “You knew!” accused Eiji disappointed to see that he hadn’t managed to surprise the tensai. Fuji smiled.

            “… I have my sources.”

            “Congratulations you two,” said Tezuka, and then suddenly, just like had happened at Eiji’s house everyone was suddenly shouting out the congratulations and hugging them or patting them on the back. Taka even declared that today _had_ to be celebrated and that all the sushi was on him.

            “How’d you find out?” Eiji asked Fuji once everyone had calmed down a bit.

            “I believe you know a Kazuma Shiro,” grinned Eiji.

            “SHIRO?! SHIRO TOLD YOU!” screeched Eiji. Fuji nodded.

            “He’s the only other grad student working under Matsumoto… we were talking about vacation and you guys just kind of came up,” shrugged Fuji. Eiji pouted and then turned to face Oishi.

            “Ya think Shiro will tell your parents for us?” Oishi smiled and shook his head.

            “Doubtful,” but telling his parents was going to be a whole other story.

 

 

…Literally.

**Author's Note:**

> I threw in a lot of OC's because, well, this takes place when Eiji is 23, so his family needed to have more family (if that makes any sense at all).  
> So here's a family tree of sorts to help keep things straight.
> 
> Kikumarus  
> Mitsu (Dad), Satsuki (Mom), Tomo, Chiyo, Jun, Hikari, Eiji,
> 
> Tomo's family  
> Tomo and Junko,. Harata (5), Megumi (4), Kinta (2), Suzu (3 mon) on a side note, she really doesn't get mentioned so everytime Junko appears just imagein she's holding Suzu.
> 
> Chiyo's family  
> NARUSAWA Jiro and Chiyo, Kagome (6), Akira (5).
> 
> Jun's family  
> Jun and Mayu, Sora (4).


End file.
